Stories

The Gardener

by Seth, Age 12
, USA

The Gardener

Chapter 1

Weed Killer

Kevin was a gardener. All he did was make his garden better and better every day. Kevin had won the best garden award around 472 times in a row and he is only 19, so I don't know how that was even possible. Kevin has three brothers. He has Freddy, the crazy one, Ronald, the billionaire, and Tommy, the most normal-ish one. Kevin’s life was normal too until the weed killer incident happened. He was walking back from the local garden shop as usual carrying the weed killer he had just bought. A man wearing a dark jacket in an alleyway jumped out and grabbed him and threw him in a hole. Kevin reacted fast and sprayed the weed killer in the man's face. “Ahhh! Why did you do that! All I was gonna do was hit you with a shovel!” screamed the man. “Why would you hit me with a shovel?” said Kevin curiously. “Because you have such a good garden and all I have are weeds! That's why i’m going to turn evil and destroy anyone with good gardens!” answered the man.

“I could just give you some tips on how to take care of your garden.” said Kevin. The man stopped and thought for a moment, “Nah, i’m going to turn evil an- Ahhh!” the man screamed as Kevin sprayed him with the weed killer. Kevin climbed out of the hole he was thrown in (which was really only a foot deep) and ran for his house. When Kevin got home he called his brother Tommy and told him about what happened, “Did this guy wear really creepy clothes and have a really creepy voice?” asked Tommy. “No, I think he had a bright green shirt under his brown jacket and I think the jacket had several coffee stains on it. His voice sounded like an ordinary bystanders voice. He really wasn’t that intimidating.” replied Kevin, “Why did you spray him with weed killer if he looked like an ordinary guy?” asked Tommy, “Because he tried to attack me with a shovel!” said Kevin. “Yeah, I would probably have done the same thing. Bye. Oh wait, I forgot to ask you something.” “What?” replied Kevin, “Are we still going to rent the RV for next week because I just got a really good deal on it and I’ve always wanted to drive in one of those things. Maybe we could drive to the Amazon rain forest! I’ve always wanted to do that!” said Tommy.

Kevin thought about this for a minute, he has always wanted to drive to the Amazon but Kevin also had to watch out for the strange man that he ran into. Maybe the strange man lived in the Amazon, thought Kevin. He thought it would be pretty unlikely. It would also be unlikely that he could drive to the Amazon. “Ummm, Kev, are you still there?” “Oh yeah, let's drive to the Amazon!” replied Kevin, “Yes! Sounds good! Bye!” said Tommy. For the rest of the week Kevin kept thinking about the road trip. He was really happy about it since the last time they went on a road trip they were in a minivan.

One night, they forgot to tie up their food when they went to bed. Tommy ended up being attacked by a bear. It happened when Tommy went outside to get his backpack, which he left by the food. Kevin heard a really loud scream and when he looked out of the window he saw Tommy halfway up a tree hiding from a bear. Kevin was thinking about it for a really long time so when he finally came to he was lying in a flower bed. “That’s it!” yelled Kevin Kevin, “I’m sick of being super creeped out by some random guy!” then he heard a familiar voice, “But it’s only been one day.” “Still it is really creepy!” replied Kevin. Then a man fell out of a tree in Kevin’s garden, “WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAT?!?!?!?!” screamed Kevin, “AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!” the man screamed as he ran away, “I think i'm going to stay at Tommy’s house for a while.” So Kevin went out to look for Tommy’s house. He got at least two feet from his house when he remembered Tommy lived at his grandma’s house, and that his grandma lived in Nevada, and that he lived in Florida. Kevin got into his little minivan that he went camping with Tommy in, and he drove for Nevada.

Chapter 2

Take the Money and Run

It was only when Kevin just got out of the small city he lived in that his car ran out of gas iin the middle of nowhere. He thought to himself that he probably should've stayed on the paved road instead of driving on the shady gravel path he chose instead. Kevin got out of his car and went to look for a nearby gas station. He found one nearby, but he then realized he left his wallet and all his money at his house. He thought he should just hitch a ride with someone else. Luckily he saw a car and he was happy at the sight of who was in it. “Kevin!” screamed Tommy, “You look like you could use a ride.” Kevin was so happy at the sight of his brother that he didn't even reply and just jumped through the window of the moving car. “What the heck are you doing!?!” “Oh sorry I was just so happy th-” “No you just sat on my lunch!” “Oh sorry.” sure enough Kevin was sitting on a hamburger wrapped in paper. “Well if you're here we should just go and rent the RV now. It is literally right across the street.” Tommy was right. There was a humongous sign hung on what looked to be a warehouse type building that said

‘BUY OUR RV’S OR ELSE!’ in big bold letters. “Well this is the place.” Kevin had a bad feeling about it. He could smell no goodness. Tommy climbed out of the car, and he went towards a strange fat man with what looked like grease stains on his bright blue short sleeve shirt and dirt brown shorts. “HELLO PERSON! NICE TO MEET YO!” This guy talked with a Jamaican accent, and his only language seemed to be yelling, “Um hello mr…”

“JOHNNY! BUT YOU CAN CALL ME BIG JOHNNY!” “Ok Mr. Big Johnny, I rented one of your RV’s-” “OH YES! YOU WERE THE PERSON CALLED TIMMY THAT RENTED THE CRUMMY CHEAP ONE!” “Um, it's Tommy- “ DO I LOOK LIKE I CARE? CAUSE I DON’T! NOW THE RV YOU RENTED IS JUST OVER HERE!” Big Johnny led them behind a overflowing garbage bin and they saw the RV which looked even worse than the garbage falling out of the bin. It had garbage falling out of it! “This is it?” said Tommy, “It looked better in the pictures.” then Kevin replied, “Well I can officially say I've seen the crummiest RV in the worl-” “OK NOW GIVE ME THE 1,000 DOLLARS FOR THIS RV!” yelled Big johnny. It seemed like this man's sole purpose was to interrupt everyone no matter what “What $1,000? It said on the website that it was $100!” Then Kevin whispered to Tommy, “Maybe if it was only $100 there was a reason for it. It is a mobile trash bin for crying out loud!” “I KNOW IT SAID THAT BUT I LIKE SCAMMING PEOPLE! SO GIMME THE MONEY!” Then Tommy said something he never should've said, “No. I won’t give you the money.” “YOU ASKED FOR IT!” then in an even louder yell he yelled, “WE GOT A PROBLEM DOWN HERE!”

Right on cue the one person Kevin wanted to be there the least, the man that has been spying on Kevin, the man that tried to attack him in the alleyway. “MEET MY NEW FRIEND THE WEED!” The man walked out still wearing his dark brown coat but this time he had all black clothes under it. He had a metal pole in one hand and pepper spray in the other. “Well, we meet again, Kevin.” the man spoke in a much darker voice now. “What?! You know this guy” said Tommy seeming very confused. Kevin replied, “He’s the guy that tried to attack me.” “Ohhhhhhhh.” replied Tommy. It seemed that Big Johnny went to hide behind the trash bin because Kevin couldn’t see him. Tommy said in a whisper to Kevin, “I’ve got an idea. Just wait until I give the signal.” Kevin nodded. Tommy then exclaimed, “Before you do anything with that metal pole and pepper spray, can I use the bathroom?” Luckily the Weed replied, “Oh sure. It’s on the right when you first walk in.” When Tommy walked up to the building, he didn’t go into the building, instead when he was just close enough he kneed The Weed in the gut causing him to drop the pole and the pepper spray. Tommy grabbed both of them. He tossed the pepper spray to Kevin who went after Big Johnny. Surprisingly, Big Johnny ran away at a decent speed for how fat he is. Tommy hit The Weed in the back and ran to the biggest, shiniest, cleanest, and most expensive RV there. Kevin was just behind him but he stopped and snatched The Weed’s wallet remembering that he left his at his house, but then Big Johnny was right behind him. “Take the money and run!” Tommy was yelling at him. Kevin got on just in time to close the door so Big Johnny couldn’t get in. “HEY THAT RV’S $4,000 WAIT NO $40,000 DOLLARS!” Big Johnny ran in front of the RV still yelling at them, GET BACK HERE RIGHT NO- OW! Tommy put the RV in drive and ran over Big Johnny. “How does it feel to get interrupted now?” Tommy yelled to him, then he put it in reverse and drove out of the ‘BUY OUR RV’S OR ELSE’ RV rental place.

Chapter Three

The Never Ending Road Trip of Doom

The next five days were boring. Tommy took a wrong turn and now they didn’t know where they were going. It seemed that wherever they drove there was never ending farmland. Every right turn cows, every left turn corn. Kevin was sick of it, sick of the constant boringness and country music. The RV’s radio seemed to be broken and only stuck on the country music channel. Kevin had the pepper spray, but he learned not to play with that the hard way. Kevin left his phone at his house and Tommy’s was out of battery, so there was no chance of a GPS.

What Kevin really wanted to do was trim the hedges in his garden or do something of that nature. Luckily on the fifth day of being in the never ending road trip of doom, Kevin found a pair of safety scissors and two small potted shrubs. First thing he did with the scissors was stab the radio to stop the country music, then he trimmed the shrubs.

The seventh day came. Kevin had already cut himself with the safety scissors. Kevin had trimmed the little shrubs, well he tried. Kevin was doing fine but then they hit a bump in the road. He cut the head off the little chicken he tried to make. Tommy didn't realize that it wasn't a real chicken and he nearly crashed the RV into an old barn.Kevin still had one shrub left, but since he cut his finger he couldn't use the scissors.

Finally the road trip ended on the tenth day, but not how they wanted it to. They ran out of gas and there was no nearby gas station this time. Now they were on the edge of the nowhere. There was a field on one side of the road and a forest on the other. Kevin wanted so badly to be in the forest and to be surrounded by all the plants. They finally decided, without much deciding, that they would go into the woods and look for a gas station on the other side. There was no logic behind it, but after being surrounded by endless fields and corn it seemed like a no brainer.

They walked into the woods a good solid one and a half miles before they came across a river. They had taken so many twists and turns that they couldn’t even try to retrace their steps. It was too long to cross and too deep to wade through and too strong of a current to swim through. There were no rocks sticking out to jump across, and there were no thin trees to push over or tree limbs to climb across. All they had with them was the metal pole, the pepper spray, and the safety scissors. Tommy and Kevin walked along the bank of the river to try and find a way across. Tommy scouted ahead and when Kevin heard “I found some kind of civilization!” calling through the woods he ran. Tommy was right, but it was just a small toolshed with nothing but a shovel and a rake in it. Kevin noticed that there was a thinner tree by the river. The thinnest one he had seen, and he got an idea, a bad one.